Friday, April 1, 2016

Syria Still Had Ties To Iraq’s Insurgency In 2011

When the Syrian
civil war broke out at the start of 2011 Iraqi officials were still complaining
about its support for the insurgency. In June, the head of the Anbar council’s
security committee said that President Assad was a threat to Iraq. (1) He went
on to say that in January militants were caught crossing over from Syria with
help from Damascus. As early as 2002 Assad began allowing its nationals and other Arabs to go to Iraq to prepare to fight the impending
American invasion. That process continued afterward. By 2008, Damascus was trying to repair relations with Baghdad as it saw the
Americans preparing to draw down in the country. Syria began cracking down on
some of the militants, and provided intelligence to Iraq and sometimes the U.S.
Still, Assad didn’t stop all of the insurgents within his territory, so that he
could monitor and maintain ties with them. Ironically, the Syrian war would
reverse the flow of men and material as Iraqi militias, militants, and tribes
all joined in on the conflict.

FOOTNOTES

1. Alsumaria,
“Anbar: Syria still poses a risk on Iraq if regime is not changed,” 6/17/11

SOURCES

Alsumaria, “Anbar:
Syria still poses a risk on Iraq if regime is not changed,” 6/17/11

Kane, Sean,
Abouaoun, Dr. Elie, “Baghdad’s Wary Support for the Syrian Status Quo,” United
States Institute of Peace, 10/18/11

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Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com